My Vegetarian Journey

About My Journey

Meat consumption was one of the biggest contributors to my carbon footprint. Therefore, I wanted to challenge myself and experiment with vegetarianism. As I embark on my semester abroad in Vietnam, I found it to be the perfect opportunity to start being vegetarian. In this beautiful country, there are plenty options to eat a meatless dish.

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Struggles along the way

Looking back on my journey, I encountered less struggles than I had expected. Beforehand I thought it would be hard, because I was used to eating meat on a daily basis.

Fast Food

My biggest struggle in the past months has been the inability to eat at fast food restaurants. Especially here in South East Asia, the popular chains have absolutely no meatless options. On days where I just want a quick meal, it has proven to be a huge struggle. Nevertheless, I have always managed to find a different solution and still haven't eaten meat since January. In cases where I am struggling quite a bit, I treat myself with something else (ice cream, chocolate, or other snacks). This makes sure I won't be demotivated to continue my meatless lifestyle.

Diet Variety

In all honesty, I am quite a picky eater. It has slowly been improving over the past years, but there are still some ingredients that I don't like. This makes eating a healthy variety of dishes in Vietnam quite challenging. Fortunately, over the months I have found a set of restaurants from which I know what I like to eat. The prices at most restaurants are so cheap here, that it makes cooking meals at home not worth it for me.

Continuing in the future

The four months that I have now been vegetarian have proven to be a succes!

The motivation to live a more sustainable lifestyle, combined with my resentment towards animal suffering, has given me the willpower to continue being a vegeterian. What began as an experiment for my PPD sustainability goals, has now developed itself into a significant change of lifestyle. Over time, the desire for meat has almost completely disappeared. Currently, I plan to continue practicing vegetarianism once I come back from Vietnam as well.

What a nice story! I remember from when I started to not eat meat that it can be very difficult at times. Being together with someone who is already vegetarian does help tremendously. Treating yourself in bad times seems like a great way to keep the motivation high. Good luck!

Janny S.

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